SINGAPORE: An HR personnel who claims to have over a decade of experience took to social media to complain that HR departments have consistently been expected to ‘assist employees’ in all aspects of their work or personal lives.
Posting anonymously on the NUSWhispers Facebook page, she rejected this notion and said employees should be more cautious about the issues they raise with HR.
She firmly stated, “Please do not come to us to solve all your minor details at work or happenings in your personal life. HR is overloaded with operational duties like recruitment and payroll.”
“We really do not have the time to sit with you and listen to your sob stories about how someone who did not help you do your work is a bad person. Please take ownership of your work.”
Rather than indulging in employees’ rants, she pointed out that HR personnel are tasked with proactively helping the employees and the organization differently.
This includes conducting Employee Engagement Surveys (EES) to identify any troublesome or ‘tyrant’ individuals within the organization, organizing engaging events to boost employee morale, and proposing incentive plans to instil a performance-driven culture, subject to approval from management.
Towards the end of her post, she lamented the lack of support for HR personnel, writing:
“Do you know we sometimes also want to rant about our team or superior, but we have no one to turn to? At least other departments have employee engagement surveys conducted by HR to hear them out, but no one conducts EES for HR.”
“I never had that misconception. The HRs I’ve seen are there to help employers whip employees to shape”
In the comments section, the netizens criticized the HR personnel and stated that they had never had that kind of misconception before.
Many said they knew that the HR department is simply there “for the company and not for the employees.”
One netizen reflected on his experience at his company and stated that it is frequently the “HR department that makes things worse for the employees,” as they enjoy gossiping, creating tension, “rumor mongering,” and “sharing lies” with the bosses for their own personal interests.
He added, “Unfortunately, my experience was not with one employer but almost in all cases. So please, if your job is to do payroll, we dun need HR, we just need a software.”
One netizen shared, “There are also HR who condemn those who help others to get work done. After all, everyone goes to work to slack and go through motion so no one should rock the boat.
When boss on top is around, just wayang with a few fake results and get it over with. Singapore is one of the best places to work because you can literally produce nothing and get paid a lot for that.”
A third netizen chimed in, writing, “I never had that misconception. The HRs I’ve seen are there to help employers whip employees to shape. But I agree they are not there to solve minor or private matters of employees.”
Read related: Abusive boss: “He constantly shouts at everybody; made numerous complaints to HR but to no avail”
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